Your Old PC is Your New Server

[MinionToGaming]

57 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

Not sure if you have set this, but can you check if this 'Limit the number of simultaneous users to:' is set to more than 1?

 

 

I think you might get a better respond if you post it to Networking category.

Ok! Ill give this a try and if it won't work ill message on the networking category! Thank you!

[Bramimond]

Can't recommend that. Too much of a waste of energy.

Unless your energy is free, try something like this for servers: https://cheapskatesguide.org/articles/thin-clients.html

 

Quote

Seeing that the power consumption never rose above 11 Watts during boot and remained at 5-6 Watts while idling confirmed that this should make a fine web server or NAS.

Quote

 I ordered an HP T620 (not the HP T620 Plus) from Ebay for $26.35 US including shipping and taxes

 

[Etch]

13 hours ago, Colty said:

You should probably put post this as a thread over here - https://linustechtips.com/forum/46-troubleshooting/

Quick thoughts though, I would check the PSU since it's tripping the breaker. PSU testers are cheap and a handy tool for DIY oriented people. None of the specs you mentioned are power efficient, but it shouldn't trip the breaker unless something is wrong. 

Thanks for the redirect.  I appreciate it.

[MattEatsMochi]

Hey everyone! I did it, I've been meaning to make my own home NAS for a while for all my editing projects and this video pushed me over the edge. I think I've got everything all set up, drives are RAID'd and shared to the network. Last hurdle is trying to figure out why I'm not getting the best read speeds over the network. Here's a reading from the server itself,

 

 

and moving a single video file back onto my editing rig. Max I'll get is that 110mb/s.

 

 

 

I've got gigabit ethernet ports on my server, switch, and all computers accessing it (to my knowledge). Any ideas where I can start troubleshooting? 100mbps isn't the worst, but for bigger video files it might be too big of a bottleneck.

 

Let me know if I should provide any additional information and thanks for the help

 

[Sam002]

Well in the video it says for windows but i already have linux pop os so what can i do to change it into a server

[CerealExperimentsLain]

11 hours ago, MattEatsMochi said:

and moving a single video file back onto my editing rig. Max I'll get is that 110mb/s.

 

 

 

I've got gigabit ethernet ports on my server, switch, and all computers accessing it (to my knowledge). Any ideas where I can start troubleshooting? 100mbps isn't the worst, but for bigger video files it might be too big of a bottleneck.

 

Let me know if I should provide any additional information and thanks for the help

 

That's not 110mbps, that's 110 MB/s.  Not 'Megabits' but 'Megabytes Per Second'.  Megabyte Per Second * 8 = Megabit, so 110MB/s is 880mbps.  While it is a bit slow, performance varies a lot on network hardware, but you'd never see faster than 960mbps or 120MB/s in ideal circumstances.  You're not far off from the maximum performance envelope.

[MattEatsMochi]

2 hours ago, CerealExperimentsLain said:

That's not 110mbps, that's 110 MB/s.  Not 'Megabits' but 'Megabytes Per Second'.  Megabyte Per Second * 8 = Megabit, so 110MB/s is 880mbps.  While it is a bit slow, performance varies a lot on network hardware, but you'd never see faster than 960mbps or 120MB/s in ideal circumstances.  You're not far off from the maximum performance envelope.

appreciate the response! guess I don't need to worry about anything outside of upgrading to a 10 gigabit ethernet, ya?

[tkitch]

2 hours ago, MattEatsMochi said:

appreciate the response! guess I don't need to worry about anything outside of upgrading to a 10 gigabit ethernet, ya?

I hope you're ready for the cost and headache that goes along with 10gbps networking.  

 

Upgrading to 2.5 isn't terribly difficult, so that might be a wise first step, but 10 is a challenge.  

[dogwitch]

3 hours ago, tkitch said:

I hope you're ready for the cost and headache that goes along with 10gbps networking.  

 

Upgrading to 2.5 isn't terribly difficult, so that might be a wise first step, but 10 is a challenge.  

10gb is  more support and part wise then 2.5gb.

 

[tkitch]

42 minutes ago, dogwitch said:

10gb is  more support and part wise then 2.5gb.

 

Depends on what you mean by support.  

I can go from 1gbps ethernet to 2.5gbps ethernet by adding a 2.5 ghz switch, and plugging in some cards into boxes that aren't equiped with them onboard.  A 2.5gbit card is 25-35$.  A 5 port switch starts at 50$, and I can reuse decent cat6 to run at 2.5gbit without a care.

10gbit cards /start/ at 100$.  Switches are more than that.  And I need either Fiber or CAT6A/CAT7 to run well.  

So for less than the price of a 10gbit card, I can get 2.5gbit running (since the majority of modern boards come with 2.5gbit.)

 

And if 250+ MB/s transfer isn't fast enough?  You're doing something that isn't designed for your home setup.

[Chiyawa]

8 hours ago, MattEatsMochi said:

appreciate the response! guess I don't need to worry about anything outside of upgrading to a 10 gigabit ethernet, ya?

10gigabit Ethernet, like @tkitchsaid, are quite expensive, but it is still possible to set up. You just have to be very careful on the compatibility of all your devices. Also, 10 gigabit Ethernet is a little overkill, so I think you can try for 5 gigabit Ethernet if you want, but they are also quite expensive and not very common.

 

There is another way, where you can use what the we call 'link aggregation' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_aggregation). This method allows you to bind 2 Ethernet port (assuming your NAS has 2 Ethernet ports) to increase the bandwidth. This however require you to have a good level of networking knowledge and not all switch or router supports it.

 

I suggest you to check out the Networking sub-forum. Maybe they have a better understanding on this topic and may help you on your networking needs.

[dogwitch]

3 hours ago, Chiyawa said:

10gigabit Ethernet, like @tkitchsaid, are quite expensive, but it is still possible to set up. You just have to be very careful on the compatibility of all your devices. Also, 10 gigabit Ethernet is a little overkill, so I think you can try for 5 gigabit Ethernet if you want, but they are also quite expensive and not very common.

 

There is another way, where you can use what the we call 'link aggregation' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_aggregation). This method allows you to bind 2 Ethernet port (assuming your NAS has 2 Ethernet ports) to increase the bandwidth. This however require you to have a good level of networking knowledge and not all switch or router supports it.

 

I suggest you to check out the Networking sub-forum. Maybe they have a better understanding on this topic and may help you on your networking needs.

 to tk

 

also win 10 and up to play nicely

btw most modern boards dont have 2.5gb

its been 1gb. and high end boards do 10gb  in or with a free card in the box.

2.5gb  is a odd duck in networking. its really only on consumer side. the overall networking market its not supported as much as 100mb,1gb,10gb.

 

i could build out a network in the house cheaper with 10gb cat then 2.5gb.

you can get Enterprise dirt cheap .

[Zweetheart]

G'day all,

I'm really new here and was hoping for some advice about plex. I have a server at home and was just being lazy (using windows 10) and setting up an offsite (mainly) storage server at a family members house who will be "handed the keys" and shown benefits of a windows 10 server.

My issue is that I have downloaded and installed the 'Plex Media Server'. This shows up in my program list in 'add and remove'

Below is my current install of Windows 10

 

When I right click to open plex and click on "Your Media" it directs me to install the Plex Server again. I have undertaken multiple fresh installs of the file 'PlexMediaServer-1.25.2.5319-c43dc0277-x86'

 

 

My gut feeling is that there was/is an issue somewhere with the initial setup, but I'm currently at a loss.
I can provide any additional info if someone may know what I'm not considering.

Thanking you in advance.
~ZweetHeart

 

 

 

 

[MrCyrious]

On 12/13/2021 at 2:07 PM, finest feck fips said:

Who is this video for? People who don't know that Windows File Sharing exists? It seems like it doesn't have anything to say to its target audience that they don't already know (except that Pulseway exists and they should buy it), even though it assumes its target audience knows almost nothing at all.

 

I just started watching the youtube channel, I'm 100% oblivious to this stuff, and had absolutely no idea that any of this even existed. So....I mean...yeah, I think there is someone out there that can benefit from this information, even if (as they repeatedly emphasize) this is a basic starting point. Believe it or not there are some basic schmoes out there like me that use computers every day, consider themselves reasonably proficient within their social circle, and still have absolutely no clue.

 

So, I happen to have a 7 year old quad core HP laptop with a pair of 2TB external drives that were laying about collecting dust and I had no idea they were actually useful. Apart from the pulseway stuff, there were some handy tips to get me started down this fun new rabbit hole. One thing: everybody is banging on about how "Windows is horrible to use as a server" and "it's not really feasible" and "don't even try", but I haven't seen very many fleshed out reasons as to why, especially when it comes to a basic Plex/NextCloud server. Just "windows bad".

 

Me being the curious type, I figured I'd give TrueNAS Core a try since it's mentioned in the video, and people seem to really like it. Got it all installed, noticed that it was constantly spinning my external drives...quick search and the TrueNAS forum folks are saying "TrueNAS and laptop with USB drives bad, guaranteed failure". Also apparently most laptops don't come with ECC RAM? Okay. Back to Windows.

 

That being said, I'm still in the curious mode and am on holiday (lol) so I figured I'd try my hand at Ubuntu real quick since the prevailing theory seems to be "use anything other than Windows for your home server".

 

Anyway, I mainly came here to say that this video 100% brought me here, and am super curious to see more videos and read more about this kinda stuff. Exposing me to a world of networking that I never knew existed!

[Zer0FluxGiven]

On 12/23/2021 at 8:04 AM, Zweetheart said:

G'day all,

I'm really new here and was hoping for some advice about plex. I have a server at home and was just being lazy (using windows 10) and setting up an offsite (mainly) storage server at a family members house who will be "handed the keys" and shown benefits of a windows 10 server.

My issue is that I have downloaded and installed the 'Plex Media Server'. This shows up in my program list in 'add and remove'

Below is my current install of Windows 10

 

When I right click to open plex and click on "Your Media" it directs me to install the Plex Server again. I have undertaken multiple fresh installs of the file 'PlexMediaServer-1.25.2.5319-c43dc0277-x86'

 

My gut feeling is that there was/is an issue somewhere with the initial setup, but I'm currently at a loss.
I can provide any additional info if someone may know what I'm not considering.

Thanking you in advance.
~ZweetHeart

 

 

 

 

Don't know if you solved this or not, but I'll give my two-cents. I've had some issues in the past with browsers caching some data from the Plex web UI, so I would first try adding new libraries through the server's settings page:

 

1. Click the wrench icon in the upper right

2. Scroll down to the bottom of the left-hand menu on the resulting page

3. Under 'MANAGE' click on 'Libraries'

4. Click on the button 'ADD LIBRARY' and follow the prompts from there.

 

Give this a shot and let us know!

[RussCreekRoad]

Help!

All steps Anthony shows work flawlessly right up until the sharing folders step. When I try to share a folder with my network it allows me to copy and paste the link. However, when I paste it and hit enter, it attempts to connect, then proceeds to throw an error message back at me to check the spelling of the name or its a problem with my network. I am very new to servers, all help is appreciated.

 

The Link It has me pasting looks like this "Shared (file://DESKTOP-DCR8HOI/Shared)"

[RussCreekRoad]

4 minutes ago, RussCreekRoad said:

Help!

All steps Anthony shows work flawlessly right up until the sharing folders step. When I try to share a folder with my network it allows me to copy and paste the link. However, when I paste it and hit enter, it attempts to connect, then proceeds to throw an error message back at me to check the spelling of the name or its a problem with my network. I am very new to servers, all help is appreciated.

 

The Link It has me pasting looks like this "Shared (file://DESKTOP-DCR8HOI/Shared)"

Update: The Error Code is: 0x80070043 "The network name cannot be found."

[finest feck fips]

On 12/24/2021 at 7:28 PM, MrCyrious said:

I just started watching the youtube channel, I'm 100% oblivious to this stuff, and had absolutely no idea that any of this even existed.

Huh. You've never used a networked file share at school or work? Or just didn't make the connection that that feature was available to you on Windows at home?

 

On 12/24/2021 at 7:28 PM, MrCyrious said:

the TrueNAS forum folks are saying "TrueNAS and laptop with USB drives bad, guaranteed failure".

That's interesting. I wonder why that is. I suspect that TrueNAS folks just have high expectations for reliability, and the real issue is just that USB HDDs tend to be very cheap and cheaply made, so they're not ‘safe’ to use without redundancy. I'd be surprised if ZFS had some special issues with USB drives.

 

On 12/24/2021 at 7:28 PM, MrCyrious said:

Also apparently most laptops don't come with ECC RAM? Okay. Back to Windows.

This is definitely some ZFS user perfectionism stuff. You don't need ECC RAM to use ZFS; with regular RAM you'll be no worse off than if you were using some other filesystem. ECC RAM gives you additional protection against certain kinds of corruption, and the kind of people who build fancy storage systems based on FreeBSD or Linux with ZFS tend to value that highly. But if you're just messing around (rather than spending thousands of dollars building a redundant storage system) there's no reason that lacking ECC RAM should make you steer away from ZFS.

 

On 12/24/2021 at 7:28 PM, MrCyrious said:

Me being the curious type

Definitely mess around with TrueNAS and some Linux distros then, just because there's a lot to explore.

 

On 12/24/2021 at 7:28 PM, MrCyrious said:

I figured I'd try my hand at Ubuntu real quick since the prevailing theory seems to be "use anything other than Windows for your home server".

If you feel like trying to learn a new operating system all at once is overwhelming, I guess it's fine to start with a Windows server. But if you enjoy trying and learning new things, I'd recommend getting into free software operating systems for this anyway, just because they're more fun for that type of person.

Check out the Linux and FreeBSD magazines at your local bookstore some time. They have articles with project ideas and tutorials as well as DVDs that come with multiple operating systems you can try, usually featured in reviews. It's a good way to find high-quality guides that are ready to try, and it's a lot of fun!

[ManifestingRed]

(Deleted) 

[MaxFKC]

So I'm kind of new to this, got basic IT knowledge so shouldn't be too difficult but I was thinking of hosting my own photo file server and wondered if it would be possible for them to upload straight from my phone? I wondered if this would need to run on Linux or if I could use Windows and download File Explorer on my phone but then I suppose I would need to manually upload from my phone. Any help or ideas would be great

[MaxFKC]

Just now, MaxFKC said:

So I'm kind of new to this, got basic IT knowledge so shouldn't be too difficult but I was thinking of hosting my own photo file server and wondered if it would be possible for them to upload straight from my phone? I wondered if this would need to run on Linux or if I could use Windows and download File Explorer on my phone but then I suppose I would need to manually upload from my phone. Any help or ideas would be great

In addition to this I wasn't sure whether it would be worth using a TrueNas would be a better option than using an old PC?

[Sir Asvald]

On 12/14/2021 at 5:14 AM, poochyena said:

I don't really see the point? What would I gain by having a home server? Why not just add more harddrives to my main PC

Okay, lets say you add a more drives to your PC, what are you going to do if your PC decides, that's it I am no longer going to work.. The whole point of having a server is have some safe backup of your data, not just in 1 location, multiple locations. 

[poochyena]

2 hours ago, Sir Asvald said:

Okay, lets say you add a more drives to your PC, what are you going to do if your PC decides, that's it I am no longer going to work.. The whole point of having a server is have some safe backup of your data, not just in 1 location, multiple locations. 

get a new PC and take the old drives out and put them into the new PC?

[Sir Asvald]

33 minutes ago, poochyena said:

get a new PC and take the old drives out and put them into the new PC?

Dead PC = dead everything.

[poochyena]

18 minutes ago, Sir Asvald said:

Dead PC = dead everything.

Seems unlikely a scenario where your entire PC dies, but your home server, likely located nearby, doesn't also die.